Disturbing, powerful and emotionally devastating, Tears of Gaza is less a conventional documentary than a record – presented with minimal gloss – of the 2008 to 2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military. Photographed by several Palestinian cameramen both during and after the offensive, this powerful film by director Vibeke Løkkeberg focuses on the impact of the attacks on the civilian population.
–

* Tuesday, March 6
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
How can a popular tribunal help the pro-Justice movement?

Frank Barat will give a brief historical overview of the work of the Russell Tribunal, including the Vietnam and South America tribunal of the 70s and will then focus on the Palestine tribunal with a strong emphasis on its last session, in Cape Town, that concluded that ‘Israel policies against the Palestinian People were in breach of the prohibition against Apartheid in International Law’. Organized by la Coalition pour la justice en Palestine-UQAM (CJP UQAM).
–

Premilla Nadasen was born in South Africa and although she moved to the United States at a young age, she returned periodically to visit family and saw first hand the discriminatory policies of the Apartheid regime. She received her Ph.D. at Columbia University and her B.A. at the University of Michigan and she currently holds a position as an associate professor of history at Queens College (City University of New York.) In June 2011, Nadasen participated in a delegation of indigenous and women of colour feminists, activists, academics, and artists who visited the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Upon their return the delegation strong endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign and issued a call to action aimed towards their academic and artist colleagues to follow their lead.
–

This workshop and facilitated discussion will serve as an introduction to “pinkwashing,” the propaganda campaign targeting Western queers designed to secure their support for the Israeli state. Pinkwashing works by painting Israel as a haven for gays amid an intolerant, backward Middle East. Gay rights in Israel, we are told, justify the brutal, ongoing oppression of Palestinians, via policies that constitute apartheid according to many international observers. As queers, should we just learn to live with the fact that our freedoms may come at the expense of others’ subjugation and suffering, or can we look beyond our individualized identities to a larger solidarity between all those who struggle for justice and dignity? Workshop will be presented by Claire Hurtig, a member of Tadamon Montreal.

* Thursday, March 8
Demonstration: Solidarity with Palestinian Women!

BDS contingent in the International Women’s Day march
6:00pm, Cabot Square (corner of Atwater and Ste-Catherine, Atwater metro)

Join the contingent with Palestinian flags and the BDS banner. This is an opportunity to express support for Palestinian women fighting against Israeli occupation and apartheid while also joining an international day of action, International Women’s Day, to support women’s liberation struggles, all around the world. Bring your own flags, signs, and noisemakers! For the full callout, visit:http://wdofdo.wordpress.com/

–* Friday, March 9Film Screening with Cinema Politica: Budrus

including presentation by Dawood Hamoudeh organizer with
the Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in occupied Palestine.

Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today.

Dawood Hamoudeh is an organizer with the Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (http://www.stopthewall.org), based in Ramallah. Hamoudeh recently authored a report entitled “Development or Normalization? A critique of West Bank development approaches and projects”.
–

In this presentation, Bassam will discuss the structural causes for the emergence of the Syrian uprising and the factors that explain the stalemate thus far. Special emphasis will be placed as well on critical questions of regional politics, particularly those related to the issue of resistance and the left. Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, and is Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011). Bassam also serves on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report and is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine. Lecture organized by Tadamon!

6:30pm, Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve West
room H-763 (Guy-Concordia metro)http://www.facebook.com/events/309919669065197/
Janie Jamieson-Cook and Yafa Jarrar will discuss systemic violence experienced by indigenous women in Canada, and the struggles faced by women in Palestine on a daily basis. This panel comes on the heels of the call for a UN inquiry into Canada’s human rights abuses with regards to Indigenous women. This event is hosted by the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University.

Janie Jamieson-Cook of the Mohawk Nation Turtle Clan is from Six Nations, Grand River Country. She is a political activist and the married mother of three: Jewel, Cecil, and Warren, and has one brother, and five sisters herself. Janie is a third generation survivor of the residential school system, as her mother and both grandmothers were all full-time students at the mush hole in Brantford, Ontario. Yafa Jarrar is an organizer with Students Against Israeli Apartheid-Carleton University. She was born in Jerusalem/Palestine and moved to Canada in 2003. Yafa now lives in Ottawa.”

Panel facilitated by Bianca Mugyenyi, a coordinator at the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy who participated in the World Education Forum in Occupied Palestine, Oct. 2010.

–

Israeli Apartheid Week Montreal 2012!

above is a preliminary event calendar.
full event details will be updated at www.iawmontreal.org

- All speaking events and workshops will have whisper translation
from English to French/French to English

- Entry to the events is by donation (pay what you can)
unless otherwise noted

- All events are wheelchair accessible unless otherwise noted

- Childcare is available for most events.
Please email us 48 hours in advance at iaw-mtl(at)riseup.net

Israeli Apartheid Week is organized by the following groups: Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (McGill and Concordia), Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG McGill and Concordia), Tadamon, 2110 Centre, and the Coalition for Justice in Palestine- UQAM

Stay in Touch

Subscribe to our announcements list qpirgsprouts:

Your e-mail address

QPIRG MANDATE

The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia is a resource centre for student and community research and organizing. We strive to raise awareness and support grassroots activism around diverse social and environmental issues. Our work is rooted in an anti-oppression analysis and practice. We seek to make campus-community links and inspire social change through engaging, inclusive and non-hierarchical approaches.